State Sheriffs' Assn. pushes for improved mental health care system

In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, the California State Sheriffs' Association has limited its support of gun control laws to imploring national leaders to beef up background checks and to fill the holes in the nation's mental health systems.

"This is exactly the way we've been talking," Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman said of the letter. "This is the way we need to spend our energy."

Allman joined in signing a letter from CSSA to Vice President Joe Biden, dated Feb. 7, stating the CSSA's position that, "in accordance with the Constitution of the United States and the statutes of the State of California, that law-abiding persons who meet the established requirements have the right to acquire, own, possess, use, keep and bear firearms."

The CSSA letter goes on to implore Biden to "take steps to keep guns out of the hands of criminals," a problem CSSA says would be best addressed by fortifying the "woefully under-developed" National Instant Criminal Background Check System. States currently aren't required to participate in the system, the letter points out.

Part of the problem is that people across the nation believe their local law enforcement agencies can access mental health records and other information that would potentially keep a gun permit applicant from qualifying for one or prompt further background checks, according to the letter.

"Only an estimated one-quarter of felony convictions are currently available in the system," the letter states. "Through 2010, only 28 states had submitted a limited number of court judgments of dangerous mental illness, when at the same time, the National Center for State Courts estimated there should have been as many as 2 million disqualifying mental illness records in the NICS database."

As the country's mental health systems currently work, according to the letter, "California's correctional facilities have become de facto mental health institutions, as have jails in many other states." It goes on to recommend, "Instead of incarcerating those with mental illness and subjecting them and society to a revolving-door system, increased funding and additional resources should be made available for our mental health systems."

Allman agreed, echoing statements he has given recently, before the letter was written.

"If there is a silver lining to this conversation, it is increasing the number of mental health crisis workers in our county," he said. "That will help people, and it puts my deputies back on the street faster."

Allman said he is pleased with the CSSA's position, although he did not have a hand in writing the letter. As for how reflective it is of Mendocino County's citizens, he didn't offer a guess about where locals stand on the controversial gun control issue, but said he believes "the vast majority" of Mendocino County's nearly 90,000 residents are gun owners.

Allman said he has heard from people in Mendocino County on both sides of the gun control issue -- pro-gun control and against new laws that would further limit access. He tells them, "Promise me that we will spend as much time talking about mental health as we will on gun control. And that's not a very comfortable subject for most people."

Tiffany Revelle can be reached at udjtr@ukiahdj.com, on Twitter @TiffanyRevelle or at 468-3523.